Lately, I have been looking into the different worlds created by Gary Gygax. I guess you could include other TSR worlds as well given Gygax' role in the first decade of the company, but I have decided to limit this list to the worlds Gary seems to have been directly involved in creating:

The Worlds of Gary Gygax

The Great Kingdom (1970?) - a predecessor to Greyhawk, but significantly different enough to be listed separately, published in the Domesday Book fanzine.

Aerth/Ærth: The same setting as later explored in the Dangerous Journeys RPG (see below)? Setting of the Gord the Rogue stories (1987-1988).

Earth

Æsheba: Greek Africa (1987, New Infinities) - See discussion of this setting here. Robert Blake, Frank Mentzer, Jeff O'Hare are listed as authors, so maybe this product should not be included? This setting was published by Gary's company New Infinities though.

Aerth (Mythus/Dangerous Journeys) (1992, Game Designers' Workshop) - More details in this thread.

Did I miss anything? Do you consider all of these worlds to be alternate Oerths part of Gary's greater cosmology as suggested in his interview in 1984 and supported in Expedition to the Ruins of Castle Greyhawk?

-Havard

Last edited by Havard on Mon Nov 13, 2017 1:23 pm, edited 4 times in total.

I know he "presented" Fantasy Master" but I've no idea if it was a seperate world or if he had anything more to do with it than "presenting"

and I beleive there was Gamma World (Sci Fi) , I recall one module that was made by him and his son Luke. I think it is still amongst my old stuff, if so I will check it out and see if it has anymore info.

You've already mentioned the ill-fated Mythus/Dangerous Journeys. I am not aware of any others

-The Realm and the Borderlands from B2 Keep on the Borderlands (1980). This module is not explicitly set in Greyhawk, instead it is a more universal setting, with The Realm offstage and the Borderlands the site of the module.

-The Barony of Horn from the Gamma World module GW1 Legion of Gold (1981). This module is a series of "mini-adventures" set around this Barony, which includes descriptions for 14 different named towns.

* * * * *

ELDER WORLDS was an entire solar system he developed for a sci-fi version of Lejendary Adventures around ~1997. It was posted on gygax.com in ten parts at one point. The site is long gone, but the material is still preserved in the Internet Archive:

Falconer wrote:Yarth, one of the alternate Oerths, is where, at the end of the Gord the Rogue series, Gord and Gellor go and become the new Catlord and Demiurge. The Sagard the Barbarian gamebooks are set in Yarth.

It's referred to as Yarth in Dance of Demons, but the nations mentioned are those of Ærth rather than the ones mentioned in the Sagard books (which are very different). It's likely that Gord and Gellor actually moved to Ærth, but Gygax hadn't yet decided to name it that.

Falconer wrote:Yarth, one of the alternate Oerths, is where, at the end of the Gord the Rogue series, Gord and Gellor go and become the new Catlord and Demiurge. The Sagard the Barbarian gamebooks are set in Yarth.

Interesting! I have never read the Gord the Rogue novels or the Sagard Gamebooks, but I find this story fascinating!

ripvanwormer wrote:It's referred to as Yarth in Dance of Demons, but the nations mentioned are those of Ærth rather than the ones mentioned in the Sagard books (which are very different). It's likely that Gord and Gellor actually moved to Ærth, but Gygax hadn't yet decided to name it that.

So Sagard's stories take place on Yarth, but Gord and Gellor fit better with what became Ærth?

Do we have a thread about Yarth anywhere?

Does this mean Gord and Gellor are linked to Dangerous Journeys/Mythus?

Havard wrote:So Sagard's stories take place on Yarth, but Gord and Gellor fit better with what became Ærth?

Gord and Gellor are from Oerth, but at the end of the series Oerth is destroyed. The epilogue has Gord (the new Cat Lord) and his love Leda (who has become the new ruler of the Plane of Shadow) getting married on a world the book calls Yarth, with diplomats from various nations attending.

Dance of Demons, page 422:

E. Gary Gygax wrote:"Is it true that all five of the Kings of Avillon are to be here?" one of their number asked.

The steward ticked them off by rote: "Albion, Caledonia, Cymru, Hybernia, Lyonesse — yes, all of them, and soon too."

The porter, being perhaps the least experienced of the palace officials, was agog at that. "All the way from those strange kingdoms to Hy Brazeal!"

These are all nations on Ærth: the equivalents of England, Scotland, Wales, Ireland, and... Lyonesse, which is a separate Avillonian Island. Hy Brazeal is the equivalent of Brazil, in South America, or Amazonia as it's called on Ærth, so the porter is astonished that, basically, the kings of the British Isles are coming all the way to South America for a wedding.

Do we have a thread about Yarth anywhere?

Yes, here's a thread with a link to maps of the world as depicted in the Sagard books. You can see that in the first book, Yarth was indistinguishable from Oerth, with Ratik, the Solnor Ocean, the Bone March, and the Rakers; these are all locations on Oerth. In subsequent books we see that the geography abruptly becomes completely unlike Oerth. South of the See of Medegia is the Hukka Marsh, Hydranian Islands, Skull Islands, Islands of Dread, Gyptic, Nuxes, Tanzula, Isles of Dreams, Zymba, etc. These locations are all unique to the Sagard books and not part of Oerth or Ærth.

I suppose it's possible that Albion, Caledonia, Cymru, Hybernia, Lyonesse, and Hy Brazeal are all located somewhere off the Sagard maps (so both Ærth and Yarth have them), but there are definitely nations with those names on Ærth, and Dance of Demons explicitly mentions these Ærth nations and none of the Yarth nations from the Sagard books. I think it's simpler to assume that Gord, Gellor, and Leda went to Ærth and Gygax just hadn't decided on the name. Destroying Oerth and having the characters move to Ærth seems a clear reference to Gygax's own career path, saying "I'm done with Greyhawk but this is my next thing."

Does this mean Gord and Gellor are linked to Dangerous Journeys/Mythus?

They're not mentioned in any Dangerous Journeys sourcebooks to my knowledge, but I interpret Dance of Demons as saying that they were on Ærth at some point. The last chronological Gord story, in the White Wolf anthology Pawn of Chaos, said Gord had lost his position as Cat Lord in a coup and was travelling through different worlds at the behest of the forces of Balance. He was last seen on modern Earth thwarting a cult of Baphomet, though there's no reason to believe he remained there long.

Note that Gord and Leda rule separate planes of existence (the plane of the Cat Lord and the Plane of Shadow, respectively), so only Gellor, the Demiurge, makes his home on Ærth. Looking through Epic of Ærth, I notice that Hy Braseal (as it's spelled there) is said to be ruled by an Archimage Gelthoth. It's possible that this is Gellor. In Dance of Demons, the natives of Hy Brazeal are confused by Gellor's foreign-sounding name, so it seems likely he changed it. The language of Hy Braseal is an Ægyptian dialect (it was originally colonized by Ægyptians and Atlantians).

So yes, if Gellor=Gelthoth, Gellor is linked to Dangerous Journeys/Mythus.

Bardsidhe wrote:I know he "presented" Fantasy Master" but I've no idea if it was a seperate world or if he had anything more to do with it than "presenting"

The Fantasy Masters Series were a series of products produced by Gary Gygax' company, New Infinites (NIFI). I have listed all of these proucts here. In my first post, I only included Æsheba from those series. The rest of the series are adventures and one town supplement (Baldemar). So Æsheba is the only one that really qualifies as a "world" IMO.

and I beleive there was Gamma World (Sci Fi) , I recall one module that was made by him and his son Luke. I think it is still amongst my old stuff, if so I will check it out and see if it has anymore info.

Gamma World was created by James M. Ward and Gary Jaquet, but Gary Gygax did contribute to the setting GW1, Legion of Gold by Gary Gygax, Luke Gygax, and Paul Reiche. In addition, I would assume that Gary was involved with the Gamma World line since when the world came out in 1978 TSR was still in its youth. So there is a case for including it on the list.

Zenopus wrote:The Barony of Horn from the Gamma World module GW1 Legion of Gold (1981). This module is a series of "mini-adventures" set around this Barony, which includes descriptions for 14 different named towns.

ripvanwormer wrote:It's referred to as Yarth in Dance of Demons, but the nations mentioned are those of Ærth rather than the ones mentioned in the Sagard books (which are very different). It's likely that Gord and Gellor actually moved to Ærth, but Gygax hadn't yet decided to name it that.

Zenopus wrote:The Barony of Horn from the Gamma World module GW1 Legion of Gold (1981). This module is a series of "mini-adventures" set around this Barony, which includes descriptions for 14 different named towns.

Castle Zagyg goes for silly money second-hand and I can't find a PDF of it...there are PDFs that expand on the core product, but nothing for the core product itself. Anyone know where I can find an affordable copy, pdf or otherwise?

GreyLord wrote:Just another addition for what could be an alternate location on Oerth as a psydonym, or it's own thing...never finished, but it did have the environs around it made...
Castle Zagyg....

Good point. I thought Castle Zagyg was the equivalent of Castle Greyhawk, but on one of alternate Oerths? Has it ever been connected to one of those?
-Havard

It is an alternative to World of Greyhawk set for Castles & Crusades system, designed by Gary Gygax & Troll Lords, especially Jeffrey Talanian, and I think Robert Kuntz had something to do with a sister publication called "Dark Château" or something Château related (IDR). IDR the name of the alternate world, but CZ was created to be set in the official WoG, afaik.

I want to run it as the most authentic version of Castle Greyhawk, and I have a theory about using all 3 of the officially published versions: the Arch-Mage Zagyg used some powerful magicks (in his quasi-deity form) to hide the true Castle Zagyg (TLG boxed set) from prying adventurer eyes. Instead, he supplanted the real version with not one, but TWO pocket dimension versions that take adventurers to different locales, and this gating is completely undetectable. The first of the two pocket dimensions is the "Ruins of Castle Greyhawk" (AD&D 2nd edition folio module) meant for the casual party of adventurers that Zagyg has no real emnity toward. The second pocket dimension version is the humorous AD&D 1st edition Castle Greyhawk written by 20 different authors. Zagyg keeps a close eye on whoever approaches the site, and if that group has anyone that Zagyg has a vested interest in, he sends them to the 1st edition version - either as a practical joke on close friends (Melf, Tenser, Murlynd, Mordenkainen, etc.) or enemies associated with Iuz and the like.

Everyone else (including most normal player characters - but not always) gets to experience the 2nd edition version, and they'd never know the difference, and likely come out a lot richer for it.

Every once in awhile, someone slips through to the TLG version...

Angel Tarragon wrote:Castle Zagyg goes for silly money second-hand and I can't find a PDF of it...there are PDFs that expand on the core product, but nothing for the core product itself. Anyone know where I can find an affordable copy, pdf or otherwise?

The PDF would be as massive as the AD&D 2nd edition PDF with 26 core+splats. I have the boxed set - and that was a happy accident that occurred a few years back. (I walked into a Hobbytown type of model shop (not quite FLGS) that dealt with mostly WH40k and 3.5 (before Pathfinder got so widespread) and this box was discounted ($42.49 as opposed to listed price of $44.95), and I recognized it for what it was and snapped it up!)

And, no, sorry to get your hopes up, but I am not selling it.

Also, I will also make sure that I do not enjoy it to its fullest potential from here on out, for your sake (again).

Dread Delgath wrote:The PDF would be as massive as the AD&D 2nd edition PDF with 26 core+splats. I have the boxed set - and that was a happy accident that occurred a few years back. (I walked into a Hobbytown type of model shop (not quite FLGS) that dealt with mostly WH40k and 3.5 (before Pathfinder got so widespread) and this box was discounted ($42.49 as opposed to listed price of $44.95), and I recognized it for what it was and snapped it up!)

And, no, sorry to get your hopes up, but I am not selling it.

Also, I will also make sure that I do not enjoy it to its fullest potential from here on out, for your sake (again).

I wasn't even aware there is/was a and AD&D 2E copy. I actually meant the C&C revision.

Dread Delgath wrote:It is an alternative to World of Greyhawk set for Castles & Crusades system, designed by Gary Gygax & Troll Lords, especially Jeffrey Talanian, and I think Robert Kuntz had something to do with a sister publication called "Dark Château" or something Château related (IDR). IDR the name of the alternate world, but CZ was created to be set in the official WoG, afaik.

Yes, Rob Kuntz published the Dark Chateau I believe. I have the CZ stuff, just not really looking it up at this instant. What the Dark Chateau was, I think was based on Kuntz memories somewhat, and overall was a predecessor to the Grand Castle that Gygax was over.

The back story is that it was the previous stronghold, the one that came prior to the Big Dungeon everyone is interested in. It is into this prior abode that the adventures strode. It's basically a side dungeon to the Big Daddy of them all, if I recall right. It's been a while.

On the CZ box, it was only the upper works or first portion of CZ that was ever published (besides the environs found in the hardback book). I suppose I could scan them into a pdf or something, but I don't think that is legal, soooo.....

Dread Delgath wrote:The PDF would be as massive as the AD&D 2nd edition PDF with 26 core+splats. I have the boxed set ...

I wasn't even aware there is/was a and AD&D 2E copy. I actually meant the C&C revision.

Sorry for the confusion, the 2nd edition PDF I referred to is the core +splat AD&D rules, 26 books all in one massive PDF*.
I referred to it to compare it in size to any possible CZ PDF if that would ever come out!

(*probably not strictly legal, either... I can't say for sure, as I happened across it a long time ago (in internet ages) and downloaded it, not entirely sure of what it actually was at the time!)